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(Click any image for a larger view.) |
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October 30, 2001. Auckland.
This page takes us up to the end of October,
2001. |
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A 1999 Mazda van has new parents. It still needs
a new name. What's Maori for shoebox? |
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October 29, 2001. Piha.
Well today is the big day. We're heading to town to pick up our new van.
Haven't come up with a name for it yet but that will come. |
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Here's Roy in the pouring rain making the final deal on the van. It's a
pretty basic van, just a shell, but it will fit all our toys and more. |
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Notice the price of gas. And we complain
about $0.60 a litre. |
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Overhead canopy of fern type trees. |
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Kitekite falls. |
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Kauri Tree.
The early explorers used the Kauri trees as masts for their boats
as they are so tall and straight. |
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This is the drive way to Brian's house. The car ramp is supported by beams as
the whole bank drops away from where Roy is standing. The house is down below
the car and the front edge of the house is about 40 ft off the ground. The
massive tree behind is called a Pohutakawa and they seem to grow everywhere. |
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Instead of having a lawn to mow, Brian has a canopy of trees to keep trimmed so
he can maintain the view to the beach. And what a view. We went for a run
yesterday to the far end of the beach and hiked up over the headwall at the far
end.
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There are flowers everywhere here. They grow like weeds. |
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This is our nature walk up to Kite kite falls. |
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What's wrong with this picture? They're driving on the wrong side of the road!
We're starting to get used to it though. |
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There are fresh fruit and veggies stands everywhere as well as butcher shops on
every corner. Prices of groceries are really expensive though. Two regular bags of
groceries seems to cost about $50.00. |
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October 28, 2001. Piha, New Zealand.
We got up this morning with a spectacular view of Piha
beach that is on the west coast of Auckland. We're staying with a friend of
Carol's, Brian, who has a wonderful place at the beach. We went for a long
walk/run down the beach and climbed up a head wall at the far end. Awesome
views. It's been rather rainy and the winds are howling, but we love stormy
days at the beach. We haven't been brave enough to get in the surf yet. Rather
cold for that.
We are having to acclimatize here again. It's rather
chilly when it's only about 7C in the morning, damp, and no heat. Our furnace
at home would certainly have kicked in at that temp. Yesterday we were at the
car fair looking for a vehicle and it was pouring rain. We stood in the rain
for over two hours and we were pretty damp and cold in the end. We came home to
a glass of wine, smoke salmon, brie cheese and a lovely view of the beach. Not
so bad.
So the car hunt was successful. We are in the process of
buying a Mazda E2000 van. The vans are not anything like what we have a home.
Most of the ones we have seen are basically a shell, square in shape, nothing
at all in the back and the engine is either under the front seats, or a small
engine up front. We tossed about the idea of getting a station wagon, but we
are so used to chucking everything in the back of our van it was hard to relate
to a station wagon. We hadn't had our money transferred here yet so will have
to go in on Tuesday and make the final payment and pick up the van.
We also have a flat that we found on Friday. Trying to
decide where we wanted to live was tough at first. Well until we started
looking and saw just how horrible and smelly some of them were. Unlike Calgary
where it is so dry people complain of nosebleeds and dry itchy skin, the
humidity is a problem here. Most people have de-humidifiers and take out 4-8
litres of water a day. Needless to say, some of the flats we looked at
haven’t been maintained and they smell mouldy and disgusting. We soon
realized the price range we had to look at in order to get something that
wasn't a dive and then we decided it would be silly to take a place in suburbia
when we could be living close to the beach. So we took a flat in St. Heliers
Bay and we are less than one km from the beach and have the most amazing views
of the shoreline.
Today we will be arranging things like power, phone, etc.,
etc. Haven't made much progress on the job front, but looking for a place to
live and a car where our main objectives. Now comes the job hunt.
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October 27, 2001. Auckland and Piha New Zealand. |
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Finally we found a home: a flat in St. Heliers Bay. It's just
one kilometre from the beach. The upstairs has a great view of the ocean. |
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Then we drove to Piha, west of Auckland to Brian's place:
his "treehouse" on the beach. Very stunning architecture. Not a
square room in the house. Here's his backyard. |
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Then we went for a walk on the beach. |
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October 23, 2001. Auckland, New Zealand.
The Kiwi's Welcome us!?
We went for a stroll our first day to check the scenery on One Tree Hill.
(The top of the hill has no tree anymore.)
It was a tad cold, rainy and blustery. But no snow!
It was interesting for Carol to see Auckland from a great vantage point and
try to re-orientate herself after 12 years. Not much looked familiar at first
but things are coming back to her. |
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Piss on ya, mate. |
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WHAT ARE YOU DOING
HERE? |
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October 21, 2001.
We've been real busy looking for a flat to let (apartment for rent) and a
car to buy. So far we have neither but at least we're learning our way around the city.
Driving on the left side has been exciting, especially around the traffic
circles. We've dubbed one intersection "Roy's Corner". It was a
little scary as he tried to turn into on coming traffic on a main intersection
at night.
He opted to keep going straight, thank god.
We are currently staying at Al and Sylvia's place in an area fairly centrally
located. Has helped heaps as we are driving circles around the areas
surrounding the city. |
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Car Hunting at Mission
Bay |
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This is Al and Sylvia giving us a tour of the wharf area of the city. |
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Harbour bridge in the background. |
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Al went out fishing and caught about 9 snapper which Sylvia served up for tea.
Very yummy indeed.
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Here's Roy on Takapuna Beach. We were cruising the city, looking for areas
where we might want to flat. This looked like a good beach to sail from.
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We did find our bikes: but they left Calgary after us and got into Auckland
before us. Go figure. |
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October 19, 2001. East of Taipei, Taiwan.
Well, we're halfway there. We had some minor disruptions. For one thing
we're missing about five thousand dollars worth of bikes. They were last seen
with a AC luggage guy in Calgary, telling us they didn't belong on the
conveyor: that they were oversize, and he'd see to it they got on the plane.
And our departure from Calgary was delayed about two hours. And they still
didn't make it!And then... a scare at L.A. about some white powder or a bag found without
an owner or something. The
international terminal was shut down for four hours. So we left Los Angeles at
03:30. Now we've flown over the Pacific. Who knows how many hours? 12? 20? And
lots of hours time change.
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